Health Challenge: Getting Your Vitamin C Fix

Vitamin C Supplements

At the first signs of the common cold, in the modern world, we turn to vitamin C supplements, in any form or shape — whether chewable tablets, effervescent tablets, fortified juices…you name it. Vitamin C is most often associated with the “flu” or common cold because of its reputation to keep the body strong and healthy.

People rely on these supplements, or on hot drinkable remedies fortified with Vitamin C, because they are accessible, quick, and the common notion about this vitamin is that it helps you get relief from the common cold. The best source of vitamin C almost always comes from fresh fruits and vegetables. The wisest, most common sense thing to do is to add them to your daily diet to ensure you get it from natural sources, without turning to packaged, processed, chemically-made tablets.

Fruit Salad

Citrus fruits such as oranges and grapefruit have an adequate Vitamin C content, as do other fruits like strawberries, papaya, kiwi, and guava. You are obviously wondering how to eat all these in a day to satisfy your body’s recommendations. The answer is simple. Dice all of the above ingredients, except guava, and combine them in a bowl. Dice the guava separately and puree it until it is almost liquid, add 2 teaspoons of brown sugar, some water or skimmed milk, and a teaspoon of rum (for those of you who enjoy the taste), and blend it until smooth. Add this juice to the diced fruit to make a fruit salad. Serve in a bowl and add few sprigs of fresh chopped mint leaves.

Fruit Smoothies

Another option is to start your day with fruit smoothies. You can prepare them at night, and they will be chilled by morning, giving you a fresh start to the day. Almost all smoothies have the same method of preparation and basic ingredients. The trick is the combination of fruits and that extra special ingredient that often gives it a kick, such as ginger, mint, or vanilla. For instance, a kiwi smoothie can be made in a combination of the following: kiwi banana smoothie, kiwi strawberry smoothie, kiwi-banana-strawberry smoothie. Whichever fruits you choose, the procedure is simple and similar. Dice your fruit. Purée it. Add milk, skimmed milk, or yogurt; some ice cubes; 1 or 2 teaspoons of brown sugar, and blend in a juicer or food processor.

You will soon find your own special combination; it will change with the seasons and practice will make it perfect, but keep the vitamins in mind no matter what recipe you concoct.

Share this:

Like this:

Related

1 Comment

Lora
December 1, 2011

Tamar – Yum – the picture of the smoothie with fruit looks so good! Smoothies are so good and I love the fact that you can experiment so much with the varieties of fruit, yogurt, milk, kefir, and even vegetables. The Ninja 1100 Blender is a great choice if you are looking for a blender for making super smoothies.

6 days agoby jonell_gallowayWe all have to let off steam from time to time. I do it through words, sometimes harsh, sometimes sweet; Venice does it through windows and steam-pipes. Hand-shaped bricks were laid onto this marshland over a thousand years ago and still stand, the alder wood foundation stakes digging deep to reach the bottom sands of this shallow lagoon. This wall tells a tall story, filled in over the centuries with newer bricks and stones, later covered with plaster, itself now crumbling with age, like family stories that change tones with the times and are embellished with black or white lace